Re: ASME (or other) Piping Codes and Standards

>If you see a pdf file offered that is a copy of one of these
> publications you will know that someone
> has broken the law.

>And if it's offered on this list, the offeror will be summarily removed.

This discussion is leading to that age-old debate on IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). People are indignant that some bloke round the corner is offering bootleg versions of such exalted pieces of intellectual work.

It is a different matter that someone who immediately needed these references just has to know the use of a search engine to be able to download the counterfeit e-book. Such a person would have referred the applicable clause, applied it and moved on, leaving the rest of the forum to chew over the fine matters of law and propriety.

Now look at the possibility that a legal version is available on CD for $27 or better still at $2.70 instead of $270 (annual Per capita income of many countries does not reach 4 digits). The same person would visit the store and make a purchase without pausing once, in the face of such heart warming prices.

Couple of years back, I visited a country littoral to the Persian Gulf. On a trip to a corner store, I was aghast to find latest versions of nearly all expensive technical books and software on sale at the price of a hot-dog each. A visit to a pharmacy later and I found life-saving drugs on sale at prices which wouldn't cover cost of packaging them in the USA.

I confess that instead of feeling sorry for the fortune companies that market the SW/medicines or Authors and their huge publishing houses, I actually envied the denizens of that country on their ease of access to these treasures.

It is laudable and appropriate that the originator of an idea should benefit from it. His toil to bring his work to life should surely be rewarded. Now to what extent is the moot question? By making obscene profits and loading costs incurred at enforcing monopoly, leads to someone round the corner breaking the so-called 'law'.

Whose law and what law? Nobody knows. Laws and concepts of right and wrong change with times, geographic location and community. In my country I will get arrested and punished heavily if I take a second wife. I can however marry multiple times and perfectly legally just by changing my religion. Having done that I can return to my earlier religion along with the 'harem' and proclaim that I am a law abiding citizen.

I am sure that something which the Americans call illegal is a perfectly acceptable norm in the gulf country I mentioned and probably elsewhere. USA itself throws the law book out of the window when its interests get threatened (e.g. allowing drugs under IPR dispute manufactured by an Indian company in the face of Anthrax threat, something totally illegal a day earlier).

There is a thriving second hand book market in India. I am sure that China and several other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America would be no different. Acquiring a book in mint condition means the trader, Author and Publisher make money. I buy it as a used book and only the trader profits. I can however not sell or buy a software used earlier by someone else. That would be illegal and I can be prosecuted.

I find it funny that things like "Yoga" or the "Turmeric" so much a part of Indian life since ages get patented in the USA. So if I buy Indian turmeric for cooking Indian curry in India or for that matter practice Yoga, I am probably doing something illegal if I do not pay that guy holding the dear patent in the USA.

Let me quote from the "Vedas" (before they get patented or copyrighted by someone in California):

"It can not be stolen, the king can not confiscate or tax it and this treasure increases all the more with sharing.

Knowledge truly is the highest form of wealth"

Sanjay Laturkar

www.proconindia.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Received on Sat Aug 04 06:16:00 2007